Troubleshootnig Lync troubleshooting

Lync Troubleshooting is something all Lync consultants have to deal with, and we have a good toolbox with handy utilities. But - what if the Utilities in the toolbox has trouble?

Server Centralized Logging will not start

Lync Server Centralized Logging is my first point to start troubleshoot issues in Lync. The last couple of months I have experienced some problems running the tool getting an error 20000, Unknown Error.

I do also notice the same issue when running the Lync 2013 Centralized Logging UI Tool from My Lync Lab. The Start button is disabled:

I have searched Google and found referals to this problem related to the September 2014 CU. This is also reffered by Microsoft. However my fix to this problem was simply to run the Windows Power Shell or the Lync Server Management Shell as Administrator. This allowed me to start CsClsLogging manually and even start the Centralised Logging Tool from within the console started with Administrator privileges:

This is kind of a note to myself (writing it down makes it easier to remember), but I hope some of you can get help from this as well! This problem has also been addressed by Viammercer.

Snooper has stopped working

Occassionally I do come accross problems with the Snooper tool as well. When loading the LOG file, the tool simply stops working

The Centralized Logging Tool and the Snooper Tool seems to prefer English (US) Regional Settings on the server. This will often solve problems related to the Snooper. However I have more than once experienced that I need to uninstall the Lync 2013 Debugging Tools (inc. delete the corresponding folder) and download a new fresh Version. This will allow me to open the LOG files from the Lync Centralized Looging tool.